Senior Nights at Rose Hill!

My past three years at Fordham have flown by, and it is crazy to think that I will be graduating in a matter of months. As scary as that thought can be, there are certainly some huge perks that come with senior year at Fordham.  In my opinion, one of the best things about senior year here at Fordham is the opportunity to attend Senior Nights! 

Senior Nights are events that happen once every month, the senior class gathers in the McGinley Ballroom to enjoy music, snacks, dancing and more! Each Senior Night has a different theme. The first occurred in October and the theme was childhood dream job. Classmates dressed up as everything from ballerinas, to doctors and vets, basketball players, astronauts and just about everything in between! The second night recently took place in November with the theme of Party in the USA! There was red, white and blue in abundance, with special guest appearances from Abe Lincoln and friends! 

Making our childhood dreams a reality! 

Party in the USA!

Senior Nights are organized by the Campus Activities Board (CAB). They do an amazing job of putting everything together and making sure the seniors can have an amazing time with their class before graduation! These nights are definitely something that I have looked forward to since freshman year at Fordham and I can't to see what next month's theme will be because I know it is bound to be a great time! 

Senior Nights

It's hard to believe how quickly the past three years have flown by whenever I think about this being my last year at Fordham.

But not to fear! Being a Senior at Fordham has its perks!

About once a month, Fordham hosts a Senior Night on campus for all the students in that year's graduating class.  Each event has a specific theme, and students are encouraged to create costumes that showcase that theme.  It's a great opportunity to be creative, have some fun, and enjoy the company of your fellow classmates!

A lawyer, an electrician, a baker, a flamenco dancer, a flight attendant,
a scientist, and a teacher head to their first Senior Night!

In October, the first Senior Night for the class of 2015 was held, with the theme of "Childhood Dream Job."  People dressed up as doctors, ballerinas, chefs, teachers, athletes, police officers, and everything in between!

November's scheduled event is themed "90s," encouraging attendees to dress up as a character, celebrity, or anything related to the 1990s.  In past years, other themes have included "The Name Game (dress as something from the first letter of your name), Safari, and 100 Nights (celebrating 100 nights until Graduation).  Students anxiously await the announcement for the next event's theme, so they can start planning their next set of costumes!

Peer Educators: We Save Lives!

As a sophomore, I became involved with a club on campus called Peer Educators, which has been an extremely rewarding experience. Peer Educators is a club that strives to improve the quality of student life at Fordham by encouraging positive behaviors on and off campus. Our goal is to decrease the harmful effects associated with the misuse and abuse of alcohol and other drugs. Fordham's Peer Educators are advised and trained by the Office of Substance Abuse Prevention and Student Support (OSAPSS). As a club, we provide accurate information to the student body so that students make informed and safe decisions. 

Peer Educators is split into three main committees: Substance and Alcohol Education (SAE), Marketing, and Passport. Each of these three committees plays a vital role in reaching out to the student body to provide accurate information and promote safe behaviors. 

We distributed water to Seniors for their first Senior Night

This year, I am a Co-Chairperson for the Substance and Alcohol Education Committee (SAE). As a committee, we have many important responsibilities. One of our biggest responsibilities is providing information on drugs and alcohol to freshmen for Core Programming, which is mandatory for all freshmen. We also have Student Awareness Days throughout the year to gauge student knowledge and usage of various substances, as well as to provide all students with information on the substance that we are focusing on for the particular Awareness Day. Additionally, we distribute water to students to encourage them to drink responsibly, which includes staying hydrated. This past Thursday, we handed out water to the Seniors who attended this semester's first Senior Night. We put labels with fun little phrases that encouraged safe drinking practices on every bottle of water.

The September poster this year

The Marketing Committee, like SAE, strives to spread knowledge to the student body about how to make safe and informed decisions. Each month, the Marketing Committee creates a poster that is posted in every building and all around campus. These posters give advice or facts to the students about a particular topic. We are usually able to determine the success of a particular poster campaign by seeing how many of the posters are taken by students. By the end of the month, there are usually very few posters still where they were posted because students take them and hang them in their dorm rooms. 

The Passport

Staten Island Ferry Excursion

Our third committee, the Passport Committee, plans free excursions for students. In September, I led an excursion to the Staten Island Ferry, which was a ton of fun. It was a beautiful day, and we had a great view of the Statue of Liberty from the Ferry. The Passport Committee is also responsible for creating the Passport, which is a great resource for students. The Passport is a small booklet that easily fits in a purse or a pocket that is filled with restaurants, entertainment, sightseeing locations, museums, sporting events, and anything else that students should know about in the city. Even as a junior, I still refer to my Passport whenever I want to do something in the city. 

I really love being a Peer Educator. We are a student-run organization that is focused on helping our fellow students. We are all Fordham students who want to encourage our peers to make safe and informed decisions both on and off campus. At one of our induction ceremonies, a Fordham Dean told us that we save lives. I am not sure if we have actually saved any lives with our work as Peer Educators, but I certainly feel like we are making a difference on campus. By simply distributing accurate information to students, we are making sure that students are not ignorant about the consequences of their actions. We cannot force anyone to make safe decisions, but we are making sure that they are informed decisions, which I consider to be invaluable.

December Preview

December at Fordham can be short and quick – with just a week left of classes, two reading days, and then finals.  But that doesn’t mean that Fordham shuts down for the month.  Not only is the campus beautifully decorated for the season, but also in between studying, writing papers, and packing for the long winter break, students still take time to enjoy themselves with fun campus activities. Every year, the Campus Activity Board (CAB), the club responsible for planning fun events for students on campus, has a Holiday Week. Every day of the week there is another CAB-sponsored activity to get everyone into the holiday spirit.  Some events include a Cultural Affairs Christmas Ticket Raffle, in which students can win $20 tickets for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular or for The Nutcracker, a Holiday Fair, a viewing of the holiday-classic Elf, gingerbread house making, and a trip to go ice skating at Bryant Park.

Another annual tradition is the Peer Educators’ Holiday Scavenger Hunt.  This is a fun event where you and a team of friends are given a list of tasks and clues (related to the holidays) that you must complete or find in the Lincoln Center area.  Prizes are awarded and hot chocolate is given out! A Senior Night is also scheduled for this month.  Senior Nights are themed dance parties, only open to seniors at the Rose Hill campus.  This month, the theme is Santa’s Workshop (I’ll be dressing as an elf!)

This month is also an exciting month for sports at Fordham.  After winning our first ever NCAA FCS home playoff game versus Sacred Heart University 37-27, Fordham’s record-breaking football team travels to Towson University in Maryland next Saturday for the next round of the playoffs.  On the same day, our men’s basketball team plays St. John’s University during the 2013 MSG Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden.

Of course, many more activities will be going on at Fordham this month, but these are a few of the things I’m looking forward to this December!

"Name Game" Senior Night

Not to try and rush your college experience, but for those of you who are already thinking about the long haul, "Senior Nights" are a tradition at Fordham that us seniors, who have worked diligently for four long years, receive as a reward for all our hard work.
To be more specific, "Senior Nights" are once-a-month, extremely popular and highly anticipated events that Fordham's Senior Week Committee does a wonderful job of planning and executing each month.
Part of the allure of these special nights are the secret themes, which are announced shortly before the events themselves.
Last night's theme was "The Name Game," which involve students dressing up as a person, place or thing that started with the first letter of their first or last name.
The event was widely attended, and students who were of age enjoyed $3 drink tickets, good for beer and wine, as well as Sodexo catering and tunes by Fordham DJ Pat McCarren.
Below are a few pictures from the event itself, as you can see, us seniors got creative!

Myself, as "a bunny," my roommate Anchal as an aerobics instructor and my other roommate Randi as "reverse".

My neighbors Rose and Zach as a rose and a zebra.